Read The Missing for Free Online Page A

like Gimpy’s tongue, soothing and ticklish. He missed Gimpy. He missed being touched. The thing moved inside him, and nestled in the space between his ears. How long had it been since a friend had come over to play? A month? No, longer. Not since last year. In school they called him the pee eater.
    I know you, James, and I like you anyway , it said. James smiled, because in his mind the thing showed him a picture of Gimpy, twitching, and he knew it was true.
    He stopped slapping and started digging. The dirt was hot and inky between his fingers. It felt wrong, like it had been cooked. He lifted a fistful, and then an- other. The hole got bigger. He dug for a long time. He dug until everything hurt, and then he dug past that until there were new, worse hurts. In his mind the thing showed him pictures. They were bad pictures, but he liked them.
    He dug past the pain in his back, his aching legs, and his bleeding fingers. Dug past his own heavy breathing, past when he remembered what he was doing, or why. The voice lulled him, like being tucked into a warm bed. It didn’t talk anymore, but he could feel it inside him. He thought about Gimpy, and his family, and Miss Lois, whom he wished on that first day of school
    hadn’t asked him in front of the whole class: “I see you’re older than the others, James. Does that mean you require special attention?” And then, after a while, he thought about nothing. Everything went dark. He fell asleep even though he was awake, just like that time with Gimpy. Still, he kept digging.
    He woke up in the dark, to someone shouting his name. He was standing in a deep hole, digging. How had it gotten so late so fast? Just five minutes ago the sun had been high in the sky. Now there were stars. His hands were bloody, and his back and legs hurt so bad he couldn’t bend without moaning. For how long had be been digging?
    “James!” a voice cried from far away. Was it his new friend? The voice sounded angry, and too loud. “ Can you hear me, James? ” it shouted again, and it was ter- rifying because he recognized it. Miss Lois had come back looking for him. Only this time, she’d brought his father. Miller Walker was calling to him on a mega- phone. “ Come here right now! ”
    James took a deep breath. His chest was so sore that his lungs ached. A vise of muscles in spasm clamped tightly around his back until he hunched over. His bleeding fingers hurt the worst, and he blew on them to take his mind off the pain.
    An eye opened inside him, and winked. Keep dig- ging, James , it told him. I know what you want. I’ll give it to you. Yes, James thought. It knew the truth. He was bad. He was that boy from the water, pale skin and black eyes. He’d killed his own rabbit.
    He lifted another handful of dirt. And another. Maybe Gimpy was down here, waiting for the bad thing to be undone. If James worked hard enough, maybe he could undo it. Sure, he knew it was impossible. But
    then again, this place was supposed to be magic.
    Something smelled bad in the dirt all the sudden. It was like rotten eggs. It came out in a spray of fog from the hole, and filled the woods. Still, he kept digging. After another handful, he touched something hard and hot. He scraped the dirt from its sides until he could pull it free. Smart boy! the voice said to him, and he smiled, because the voice sounded proud. He was smart, wasn’t he? He’d guessed about the Hulk without anyone’s help.
    The thing was brown and hard. Lighter than a rock. Longer than a ruler. He dropped it on the ground above because it made his hands hurt like frostbite. A bone, he realized. The bone from an animal’s arm. No, not Gimpy. Too big to be Gimpy. It smelled so bad his eyes watered. It’s everything you want, James , the voice said, and James knew he didn’t care about Gimpy any- more. He wanted the thing that was buried. He wanted to see the face behind the voice.
    His dad was still shouting into the megaphone, but it was too